The Passionate Intellect

Dorothy L. Sayers, detective novelist, poet, scholar, playwright, and Christian apologist, spent the last fourteen years of her life reading and translating Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. The first two volumes of her translation, 'Hell' and 'Purgatory', were published during her lifetime, but when she died in 1957 the third volume, 'Paradise', was unfinished. It was completed by her friend Barbara Reynolds.

Thirty years later Barbara Reynolds wrote this book, the first full-length study of this illuminating stage in the creative life of Dorothy Sayers. Drawing on personal reminiscences and unpublished letters, she tells a moving and compelling story. The work explores the dynamic impact of Dante upon a mature mind. New light is shed on Dorothy Sayers' personality, her relationship with her friends, her methods of work, and her intellectual and spiritual development. Readers of Dante, no less than readers of Sayers, will find this an exciting book.